Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-11-23
PARENTAL BLUNDERS.
TOO GREAT SEVERITY Or TOO
GREAT LENIENCY.
A CHILD'S NATURE TOO DELICATE
TO BE WORKED UPON BY
SLEDGE HAMMER. GOUGE
AND PILE-DRIVER.
YOU CAN'T LAY OUT A THEORY All
WAYS AND FOLLOW 1T.
ESSCHILDISHS SPORT
g, FULNESS.
DIR. rA1MAeH's SERMON SUNDAY, NOV. 18TH.

BROOKLYN, November 13.-The weekly
publication of DR.. Talmage's sermons is
beyond parallel. Beside the English. speak
ing nations, including Australia and New
Zealand, the sermons are regularly trans
lated into the languages of Germany,
France, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Russia
and India. The gentlemen having in
charge the publication of these sermons in
form us that in this country, every week,
thirteen million six hundred thousard copies
of the entire sermon are printed, and about
four million in other lands, making over
seventeen million per week. A similar ar
rangement is now being made for the pub
lication of DR.. Talmage's Friday evening
talks.
The subject of the sermon to day was
s'Parental Blunders," and the text was
Samuel iv, 49,: "He fell from off the seat
backward by the side of the gate, and his
neck brake, and he died /; for he was an old
man, and heavy" DIR. Talmage said:
This is the end of long story of paren-
tai neglect. Judge Eli was a good man.
but be let his two boys, Hophni and Phine-
has, do as they pleased, and through over.
indulgence they went to ruin. The blind
old Judge, niuety-eight years of age, is
seated at the gate waiting for the news ol
we're at the front. An express is coming
with ,idings from the battle. This blind
nonageuarian puts his hand behind his eal
and listens, and cries ''Wbat meaneth
the noise of this tumult ?" An excited
messenger all out of breath with the speed,
said to him: ''Our army is defeated. The
sacred chest, called the ark, is captured,
and your so6s are dead on the field" NJ
| wonder the father tainted and expired -
| The domestic tragedy in which these two
sons were the tragedians had finished it,
| fifth and last act. "He fell from off tht
seat backw ward by the side of the gate, ant
his neck brake and he died +; for he was al
old man, and heavy"
Eli had made an awful mistake in regard
| to his children. The Bible distinctly says
| ssHis sons made themselves vile and he re
strained them not" Oh, the ten Thousand
mistakes in rearing children, mistakes o
parents, mistakes of teachers in day schoo
and Sabbath classes, mistakes which we al
make. Will it not be useful to consider
them?
This country is going to be conquered by
a great army, compared with which that O.
Baldwin the First, and Xerxes, and Alex
ander, and Grant and Lee, all put together
were in numbers insignificant. They viii
capture all our pulpits, storehouses, facto
ries, and halls Of legislation, all our ship
ping, all our wealth, and all our honors.
They will take possession of all authority,
from the United States presidency down to
the humbest constabulary-of everything
between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
They are on the march now, and they halt
neither day nor night. They will soon be
here, and all the present active population
of this country must surrender and give
way. / refer to the great army of children.
Whether they shall take possession of every
thing for good or for bad, depends upon the
style of preparation through which they
pass on their way from cradle to throne
Cicero acknowledges he kept in his desk a
collection of prefaces of books, which pre-.
faces he could at any time attach to any
thing he wanted to publish for himself OF
others and all parents and teachers have
all prepared the preface of every young life
under their charge, and not only the pre-
face, but the appendix, whether the volume
be a poem or farce. Families, and
schools, and legislatures are in our day
busily engaged in discussing what is the
best mode of educating children. Before
this question almost every other dwindles
into insignifcance, while dependent upon
its proper solution is the welfare of govern
ments and ages eternal. Macaulay tells of
the war which Frederick the Second made
against Queen Maria Theresa. And one
day she appeared before the august Diet,
wearing mourning for her father, and held
up in her arms before them her child, the
Archduke This SO wrought upon the Off
GERS and deputies of the people that with
half-drawn swords they broke forth in the
war cry ssLet us die for our Queen, Maria
Theresa p So. this morning, realizing
that the boy of to-day is to be the ruler OF
the future, the popular sovereign, hold
him before the American people to arouse
their enthusiasm in his behalf. and to evoke
their oath for his defence, his education,
and his sublime destiny.
If parent, you will remember when you
were aroused to these great responsibilities,
and when you found that you had not done
all required after you had admired the tiny
hands, and the glossy hair, and the bright
eyes that lay in the cradle. You suddenly
remembered that that hand would yet be
raised to bless the world with its benedic
ton, or to smite it with a curse. In Aris-
totle's great poem there is acharacter called
Ruggiero, who has shield of iDsufferable
splendor, but it is kept veiled, save on Ger.
tain occasions, and when uncovered ii
startled aud overwhelmedi it's beholder, who
before had no suspicion of its brightness :
My hope to-day is to uncover the destiny O
your child or student, about which yor